Future Mazda Petrol Engines Won't Have Spark Plugs
It’s pretty clear Mazda likes to do things its own way with engines. Its history is littered with unconventional rotary-powered cars, and while almost all of the motoring world - for better or worse - switches to downsized turbo engines, Mazda’s petrol engines are still of the naturally-aspirated variety.
The latest sign of the company forging its own path is arguably the most intriguing however, as Mazda is reportedly working on a petrol engine that does without spark plugs.
According to a report in Nikkei - picked up this week by Autoblog and a few other outlets - Mazda will incorporate a new ‘homogeneous charge compression ignition’ engine into the next Mazda3 hatchback next year. So what the hell is HCCI?
Our friend Jason - aka Engineering Explained - provided the helpful video above a few months ago. But to break it down to its most simple level, HCCI uses compression rather than a spark for ignition, much like a diesel.
Crucially though, it’s more efficient than diesel engines and conventional petrols, leading to a potential 30 per cent drop in emissions for the next Mazda3.
HCCI engines are already a thing, but they’ve yet to make it into the world of production cars. Assuming Mazda and other manufacturers can get over a few hurdles (the high pressures involved make wear an issue, for instance), HCCI technology might well be the future of the internal combustion engine, providing a stepping stone of sorts before the inevitable rise of the electric car.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Screw LS engines, I’m swapping one of these into my future RX7!
This has really sparked my interest
It really is enlightening… shocking, perhaps.
So the compression is what causes combustion, that’s cool……DEISELS DID IT FIRST
Making the mixture a little more lean would sacrifice power. Yes, we would have better efficiency and mcuh less emissions, but it does suck to lose power and torque, especially with Mazda’s cars that have a really nice sporty look.
1st Koenigsegg deletes the camshafts and then Mazda deletes the Sparkplugs
And what’s NEXT?????
Toyota has deleted the Crankshafts?????
Then engines will be deleted………….
So… Do they sound like a diesel engine?
JDM Shark 🇧🇷
Only Mazda is willing to take the risk to make a better car. PS Jason is so anoying
It sounds good and all, but how will it behave in -25*C and beyond?
I’m thinking about the specific range of temperature in cylinder that Jason was also mentioning… If that specific range is on the low side, how will it behave in Mediterranean climate? Okay you can scale the mixture here and there with vvl/vvt thingies but does it do enough for a really cold start? Whole engine working temperature range is insane when you come to think of it. From -40C in some cases, to 100C When cooling isn’t quite enough for desert ride…
Diesel generally doesn’t care about the temperature range, as long as fuel is in liquid state and battery has enough oomph to crank the engine after glow plugs have done their magic on…”Temperature control” :D…
Still if you go very much on the lean lean side to get that cold start, there are still limits… like the knock resistance of hardware vs flash point of the fuel?
so many questions i have with this :-/
I wonder how modifiable an HCCI engine is. If it uses compression to ignite (like a diesel), then it should be able to take on forced induction too (like a diesel). Combine that with their current Skyactiv technologies et voila, you have a small displacement engine that should be able to output big numbers.
Ok investing on better piston engines, but…. You are Mazda! You spread the Mighty Rotary Engine all over the world! Why don’t you create a new, low-volume Rotary car????